Mars Pathfinder's Landing Site
Credit:
Viking
1 Orbiter Team
Where is
Mars Pathfinder?
Follow the arrow in the above picture taken by the
Viking Orbiter
in 1976. From the
surface Mars appears covered with rocks,
but from
orbit Mars appears covered with craters.
However, several familiar features are visible in
this photograph.
To the left (west) of
Sagan Memorial Station
are the now-familiar
twin peaks
that dominate the horizon of
many Pathfinder photographs.
These hills are about one kilometer from the landing site, twice the planned range of
Sojourner.
Two craters loom nearby: a small one to the east not easily visible here,
and a big one to the south of Pathfinder.
The landing site is in the dry flood channel named
Ares Vallis.